Episode III in 3-D?

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Producer McCallum discusses the status of the trilogies in 3-D.

By IGN DVD

During the recent press day commemorating the DVD release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, producer Rick McCallum addressed the possibility of 3-D versions of the Star Wars films coming to a galaxy (or googolplex) near you.

"It's a two part problem right now," said McCallum, speaking from George Lucas' Marin County, CA, Skywalker Ranch. "There's only about 350-400 screens worldwide, digital screens, but I'm really excited that finally after all this bullsh*t that we've been waiting for, listening to the industry try to get stuff together, that it looks like the first real deployment of digital cinema is going to start to take place at the beginning of the year. That's being done by a couple of companies, Kristy Digital and Technicolor, and I'm praying that they won't lose focus, that the industry will finally come together for the first time and really start to respect their audiences for the first time."

McCallum said that the market for 3-D movies may prove to be a catalyst to revive waning attendance numbers. "Theater owners really understand that 3-D for the first part, whether it's true or not, is the catalyst to make them understand that we really need to do something about our falling audiences," McCallum said. "I don't think that's just an issue about the quality of films. I think because of DVD, because of the access to large-screen television sets, there is a sociological change taking place in the way in which young kids are starting to see their movies."

At the same time, McCallum said that one of the companies working on 3-D technology has made enough advances that widespread distribution seems likely in the near future. "I'm very excited, because once we get to the point of maybe 2500-3000 screens, then we will start the process of working with some of the companies that are out there. One of them is called In 3 that's doing a post-production process which takes a 2-D movie and creates a 3-D which creates no eye strain. You can sit there for two hours and just the most fantastic glasses, anywhere in the theater, and we've done major tests for it." McCallum said that early tests of the Star Wars films turned out great, particularly since the resources are available to separate different visual elements of each frame.

"We've done sections of Episode IV that are really startling, because in the process you can literally pick out every visual effect and change the perspective on it as you deal with each element, and often in our films, we have 20 or 30 different elements," he said. "So even though the film wasn't planned around the idea that 3-D would become available, we can actually take advantage of it."

McCallum acknowledged the growing number of productions that will be using this burgeoning technology in upcoming years, and said he expects it will revive sagging box office returns once the technology can be consistently and competently employed. "I think it's going to be a really major form of entertainment soon," he said. "I think Peter Jackson is going to have a King Kong version at the end of his theatrical run. Jim Cameron's next picture is going to be shot in 3-D. Robert Rodriguez is continuing and so is Bob Zemeckis. So I think finally these big guys are going to really dictate to the studios that 3D is something very exciting for them."

"It's not for everything, obviously, and it's not for every film, but for certain big, live action huge movies, it presents a really extraordinary opportunity to differentiate between the DVD market and the theatrical market."